


Shower Duet Buddies

by zayniekins



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, next-door-neighbours!ziam, shower duet au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-16
Updated: 2015-10-16
Packaged: 2018-04-26 15:22:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5009842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zayniekins/pseuds/zayniekins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: "So we've never met but our showers are on the opposite side of the same apartment wall so sometimes, we're showering at the same time and we sing duets. "</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shower Duet Buddies

It was an off day for Zayn, really it was.

It was as if the universe had decided that today would be the best day to test Zayn’s patience and endurance. It started from this morning. As cliche as it sounded, he had woken up late. No matter how many alarms he had set, he always managed to ignore them and hit the snooze button. And because of this, he got to his art studio later than usual.

Luckily, Zayn worked alone so he didn’t have to face a nagging boss, scolding him for his tardiness. Instead, he immediately set to work on his latest commission which was a painting of a blonde woman doing a Marilyn Monroe pose. The client would be picking it up today and he had a few things that he needed to straighten out.

Guided by a single photo given by the client, Zayn set to work, completing and perfecting his masterpiece. By the time he was done, he had just half an hour to spare before the client got here and he used that time wisely by making the studio presentable and squeezing in a quick nap.

A knock on the door of his studio jostled him awake and he quickly scrambled up to open it, straightening his shirt and smoothening out the crinkles along the way. He may be an artist but he valued the moral that how he looked represented his work and attitude.

Zayn opened the door with a broad smile, preparing to play the nice host and was about to greet his client with a simple ‘hello’ but the lady dressed in corporate attire merely barged in. He didn’t even get to say ‘come in’. Long story short, the day got worse when the lady was unsatisfied with his painting. She said that there were a lot of flaws and that it was mediocre at best.

But excuse her, Zayn had done every detail and painted whatever was in that photo down to a T. _Maybe you’re the mediocre one_ , Zayn thought grumpily as he half-listened to her drone on and on about the correct position of the woman’s nose.

However, to please his client, Zayn offered to paint her another one so that he could get the nose right but that woman declined, saying that she would rather find a professional than him. That made Zayn’s blood boil because he  _was_  a professional, he had a degree in his name and he had painted some of the best masterpieces out there.

Unfortunately, before he could defend himself, the lady had stormed out after shouting that Zayn could do whatever he wanted with it. Zayn sighed, deciding to put the portrait on display in case someone wanted to buy it.

But as fate would decree, nobody did. Once the day was nearing to an end, Zayn closed up his studio and headed home, looking forward to a hot shower.

* * *

Zayn’s apartment wasn’t the most luxurious apartment. It was cozy and fitted his need to have a roof over his head. He wasn’t one to spend money on an apartment, he needed the money to pay his bills and such. However, he did treat himself once in a while.

Jiggling the key into the lock, Zayn wearily twisted it and pushed the door open. He forgot what a mess his apartment looked like after he had basically ransacked the entire place this morning looking for a clean pair of jeans he had left somewhere. He sighed and decided to clean everything up after the shower.

Dumping his bag onto the couch, he headed to his room but stopped in his tracks when he heard a crash. Turning around, he saw that his bag full of art supplies had fallen onto the floor and one of the paints had spilled. He must have forgotten to zip up his bag properly. Zayn let out an exasperated sigh as he saw the paint start seeping into his carpeted floor. He quickly picked the small container up and felt around for a nearby cloth. 

His hand brushed up against something and he pulled it and dabbed it onto the stain, thinking it was one of the rags he left lying around. Unfortunately, Zayn gasped in horror when he saw that he had used his favourite Marvel tee shirt to wipe up the stain. He held the shirt in front of him, assessing the damage. Of what used to be the logo of the Avengers was now a green blob as if Hulk had thrown up over it. 

_Stupid, stupid, stupid_ , Zayn chanted to himself as he tried to figure out a way to get the stain out. You’d think that being an artist, he would have already known. Sadly, Zayn was hopeless. So, he phoned his mum in hopes of getting her help. A simple phone call turned into a lengthy lecture as his mother scolded him on not being careful enough and told him that this was what happened when he left the family to go live on his own too early. 

After the reassuring his mum that he would not forget to eat dinner and come visit them that weekend, Zayn finally got off the phone and set off to clean the stain. 

_Finally_ , Zayn could go shower. He grabbed his towel and his iPod as he made his way to his bathroom. The first thing he noticed as he set foot into the bathroom was the sound of running water from the other side of the paper thin walls. Shrugging to himself because it wasn’t his business if his neighbour was also showering at the same time he was, he set his iPod onto the dock and shuffled his playlist, letting his music fill the air. 

Singing softly, he shucked off his clothes and hopped into the shower, turning the water on. He let himself get lost under the showerhead, enjoying the hot water running down his back that was loosening his muscles knotted up by stress. The music was also helping and like every other normal person, he pretended to have a concert in the shower.

He started off softly, crooning the words of Sam Smith’s Stay With Me slowly to himself. But when Beyonce’s Singe Ladies came on, he forgot the pretenses of the paper thin walls of the bathroom and the next-door-showering-neighbour and belted out the lyrics with passion, using his shampoo bottle as a microphone. Beyonce was queen and Zayn couldn’t care less if people said that the song was only for girls. Besides, the echo effect in the shower certainly made him feel more Beyonce-like.   

Halfway through the song, the shampoo bottle slipped out of his hands and fell onto the floor and Zayn stopped his singing to pick it up. Grabbing the bottle, his ears picked up the sound of someone else singing from behind the walls. Once he listened closely, that person seemed to be singing Single Ladies too and Zayn was fairly surprised. 

Did that person hear him sing?, he asked himself. He gave himself a mental slap once he remembered that the walls of his bathroom weren’t that thick and of course, that person could hear him. He wasn’t exactly being quiet about it. Oh God, poor sap that had to listen to his damn voice... Cheeks reddening with embarrassment, Zayn quickly finished his shower, wrapped his towel around himself and ran out the bathroom, not before undocking his iPod and bringing it with him.

* * *

That wasn’t the first time that Zayn had caught himself singing together with the person next door. For some reason, their showering schedules were so in sync that Zayn found himself singing with the person next door more often than not and he didn’t mind nor was he embarrassed any longer. 

On some days, they would harmonize together on an Ellie Goulding song. Zayn had to admit that the person next door had an amazing voice, able to hit so many notes perfectly and adding their own ad libs. 

On other days, Zayn competed with the person next door. He would belt out better high notes and show off his voice. The person next door seemed to get a drift of what Zayn was doing because they, too, exaggerated their notes and tried to come off as better. Some times, Zayn would admit defeat, seeing as that person was better at singing a certain song than him. Other times, he was determined to win and pulled off every musical trick he could.

Today, Zayn was at the studio, working on another art piece and this time for a charity. Thankfully, he had sold the other painting to some guy with curly hair, a charming smile and weird sparkly boots. God knows what that guy saw in the painting but Zayn gladly sold it, happy to be rid of the abomination.  

As he was mixing his paints, Zayn couldn’t help but wonder what his duet would be with the person next door that evening. The thought of them competing again brought a smile to his face without him knowing. He wondered when he would meet the neighbour or if he would ever meet him at all. Zayn wasn’t the most friendliest of guys and only had a handful of friends. He liked it that way and he wasn’t good and broadening his social horizon. 

Maybe it was best if they didn’t ever meet up. Like how weird would that be. ‘Hi, I’m your shower duet buddy that happens to find your voice amazing and I hope we can be friends and have more shower duets in the future.’ Yeah, that would be weird.

Getting home that evening, Zayn quickly went to the bathroom, ready for his shower. He heard no sound of running water from next door and thought that maybe he was a bit early but never mind. Sometimes he showered early but PND managed to duet with him still.

Unfortunately, after a few songs, Zayn still couldn’t hear anyone singing with him and his shower was coming to an end. Disappointed, he quickly rinsed himself off and got out, losing the mood to do a shower concert. He decided that he would eat out tonight, wanting to treat himself after shower duet guy bailed on him (okay, maybe Zayn was overreacting). 

After getting ready, Zayn headed out the door of his apartment and started to decide which restaurant should he head down to. He was too busy in his head that he didn’t hear someone calling him until a hand grabbed his shoulder and he jumped. 

“Sorry, mate,” the voice said, apologizing. Zayn turned around to see a brunet, taller than him with warm brown eyes. The guy was muscly and looked very fit and capable of beating people up. He had a small smile on his face and Zayn thought it looked adorable. “Didn’t mean to frighten, ya.” 

“It’s alright,” Zayn said, still in a daze with how ethereal the man looked. “Can I help you with something?”

The man looked down at his feet. “I wanted to apologize for not joining you today.”

“Huh?” Zayn was confused. “Joining me?”

“Yeah, for our shower duet,” the man said, clarifying. It dawned on Zayn that this was his next- door- neighbour and he also became quite bashful. 

“Nah, s’okay, man,” he said, dismissing it. This was weird and embarrassing. “It’s just something silly.”

“It’s not,” the man protested. “We sounded good together, and your voice is really amazing.”

“Thanks,” Zayn accepted the compliment. “Your voice is amazing too-”

“Liam.”

“-Liam.” Liam smiled and Zayn smiled back.

“Oh, I should get going. I’m heading out for dinner.” Zayn suddenly remembered why he was out. 

“Where ya heading? Mind if I join you?” Liam asked. Zayn shook his head. 

“Ah, I haven’t decided yet and you’re welcomed to join me,” he answered with a slight grin on his face. He started walking and Liam followed him like a puppy.

“Dinner’s on me, yeah? I still feel bad about missing out on our daily shower duet,” Liam said. Zayn opened his mouth to argue but one look from Liam silenced him. 

“Fine, but next time, I get to sing all the ad libs, got it?”

**Author's Note:**

> That wasn't too awful, was it?


End file.
